Returning
by violet-phoenix-rose
Summary: What if several characters came back to life? Rating is precautionary. Cannon pairings where possible.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

A/N: The idea is from worldpeace's Back To Life challenge/bunny. The character isn't named in this chapter, but that will be dealt with in the next one.

The last time she had seen a flash of light, it had been green, and she had only glimpsed it before falling into what she referred to as The Void. All she knew about that incident was that she had died, and now she had been alone for an unusual length of time. This was NOT how she had pictured the afterlife at all.

She was startled when a white light flashed before her eyes, but she wasn't worried. She decided that it could only mean something good was happening, since she was already dead and alone and there wasn't much else that COULD happen to her. But she never expected it to end up the way it did, never expected anything that was going to happen to her.

Next thing she knew, she was on a hill, looking down on a village that seemed vaguely familiar. Her first thought was that it was a dream and her second was that she was now a ghost, but both of those were dashed when it started to rain. And oh, how it rained! It was not a rainstorm so much as what is properly referred to as a torrential downpour, which equals a thunderstorm and heavy rain mixed together in a way that makes one feel sorry for any person stuck outside in one.

At this moment, she realized that she was, in fact, human again. "Yes!" she screamed, realizing that she had just had a minor miracle happen to her. Rain had never seemed like such a beautiful thing in her mind before, and the thought of getting to do at least most of the things she'd never managed to do made her happier than anything else could.

Meanwhile, in a small house in the village, three young women were having tea and trying to make sense of everything. "Odd how it's raining like this in June," one of them said. She had crimson hair and was the hostess of this little gathering of friends.

"It just means that something's about to happen," the second woman said. She resembled nothing quite so much as a willow tree, with haunting eyes and pale hair. Out of all of them, she was the least reasonable one under normal circumstances.

"No it doesn't, Luna," the third one snapped. "It just means anyone with a garden isn't going to have much of one after this." This woman had mouse-brown hair and was, to balance out her friend, TOO reasonable at times, especially in this case.

"Blast!" the one called Luna exclaimed. "There goes my rosebush!" She was unusually attached to a rosebush that she had planted in a box on the fire escape of her flat, but neither of the others dared question her about it.

"Your rosebush will be fine," the first woman said in an attempt to console her friend. "Your flat's on the fourth floor of a ten-floor building, which means the rain will have to go through six other fire escapes before it gets to yours. Hermione, could you fetch some more tea?"

The third woman disappeared for a second and then came back with another pot of tea. "It almost makes sense that, since we're stuck in a storm, we're at your house, Ginny," she said as she handed her friends the tea.

A sharp knock at the door startled them. Little did they know how much things were about to change for them as well.


	2. Chapter 2

"Who… What…" Hermione started to panic after opening the door, and then she fainted

"Who… What…" Hermione started to panic after opening the door, and then she fainted. Generally, Luna and Ginny only saw things as problems if she reacted, and this was worse than nearly anything they'd ever seen her do.

"You can come in," Ginny said to the woman, who looked so oddly familiar. She had no idea how familiar, of course, but the woman looked mostly harmless.

"Thank you," the woman said as she stepped inside the house. She was thoroughly soaked, which may have been why it was impossible for the others to tell who she was or how they knew her. "Can I sit down?" she asked.

Luna found a chair and brought it into the main room, where everyone was standing. "You can sit there," she said, not quite sure what to think of the unexpected visitor. "You look… familiar. Like I know you, but I can't remember how or why I know you."

"Funny," the woman said, feeling shell-shocked more than anything else, "because I'm feeling the exact same way. Then again, I have no idea what's happened to me in the past half-hour, so I'm probably not one to listen to."

"What HAS happened?" Hermione asked. She was back on her feet now and still trying to figure the situation and the familiarity out.

"It's a really long and complicated story," the woman replied, "and I'm not sure any of you would believe it."

"But we'd like to know," Luna said, hoping the woman would tell them. After all, there had to be a really good reason for being out in the rain as long as it seemed she had been.

"Okay," the woman said, "I'll tell you, but I'm not sure about any details at the moment. Until about half an hour ago, I was dead – I know I died, but I don't know how long ago that was or anything. Then I saw a bright flash of white light, and next thing I knew I was on that hill on the outskirts of this village. At first I thought that either I was dreaming or I was a ghost, and then it started raining, and I felt everything. That's when I figured I was human again. The village looked somewhat familiar, so I started walking towards it, hoping to find something I knew. It was like a magnetic pull led me here, which makes me think that I must know at least one of you three in some way."

"Do you have any idea who you are?" Ginny asked curiously. She was starting to get an idea of whom she was dealing with, and she wanted confirmation of it.

"It's vague at the moment," the woman replied, "but I know more now than I did a few minutes ago. I know I was probably friends with two of you, and that's the clearest it is now."

"Would it help if we told you our names, or at least the names you probably knew us as?" Luna asked. She wasn't trying to figure out the woman's identity like her friends were; she just wanted to help her.

"Yes," the woman said. "That's probably the best thing you could do at the moment. But wait – since you mentioned the names I knew you as, that means you must have some idea who I am."

"We do," Hermione said. "Unless I'm severely mistaken, which I really hope I'm not, your name is Nymphadora Tonks."

It all came back to the woman so fast. Before she had known almost nothing; now she knew everything she had ever been. It was almost panic inducing, and she nearly fell backwards at the rush of it. Now it all made a lot of sense, except for how she had ended up coming back to life.

"I just need to know one thing – what exactly happened to me?" She was, more than anything else, quite shell-shocked.

"That's the problem," Ginny replied. "We haven't any idea either. At least it seems Luna might have been right…"

Hermione cut her off. "Right about what?" she asked. It was clear that, whatever Luna's theory was, she hadn't heard it yet.

"I'd been thinking that something like this could happen," Luna said sheepishly. "I just didn't think there was a high chance of it, which is why I didn't really tell anyone."

"You really should have brought it up before this happened," Hermione snapped. "If we'd known you were sort-of expecting it, we'd know what we were doing right now instead of sitting here and being confused. Tell me, did you have any idea who this could involve?"

"None whatsoever," Luna replied, "but I was expecting someone a little more, shall we say, significant. This is so out-of-the-blue, and I'm starting to get a little worried."

Ginny blanched. Luna generally had a devil-may-care approach to unusual events, and if she got worried, so did everyone who knew her well. "What are you worried about?" Ginny asked, preparing to panic.

"I think, now that it's happened once, it's going to happen several more times," Luna replied cautiously.

"And when do you think it'll happen next? A few months?"

"I'd give it a week, give or take two days."


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Really short this time; this had to be its own chapter since it doesn't work so well with the next one

A/N: Really short this time; this had to be its own chapter since it doesn't work so well with the next one. As I've mentioned in some review replies, the next person Returns in the next chapter, though it isn't going to be someone you expect.

There were many things she needed to find, but chief among them were answers. It was clear that her return to humanity was somewhat of an accident, but there were things they could have told her. If she'd been told how long she'd been gone, for example, she would know what she had missed. Of course, the girls she'd come across hadn't once mentioned it.

She was out in the rain again, having turned down their hospitality until she could figure something out. It wasn't a torrential downpour anymore, more like a light summer rain. The girls, disappointed that she wouldn't stay with them, had given her a small bit of Muggle money so she could at least survive for a few days. She saw a shop and decided to go in and see about getting some water and an umbrella.

Once she had found and paid for her things, she glanced at the receipt the clerk had given her. It was dated June 17, 2003. She had been dead a little more than five years.

Suddenly she saw the path in front of her, the set of things she needed to do. Second chances, especially when one doesn't think one deserves them, are not to be wasted or taken lightly.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Chapter Four already

A/N: Chapter Four already! Updates are happening frequently since I have too many ideas and a lot of spare time. As usual, the character will be revealed in the next chapter, although this one is a little more obvious than the last one was.

The last thing he remembered was an exploding wall that knocked him unconscious. He supposed that he had died, although that hadn't been clear at the time, as he had been alone from then on. Now an odd feeling had taken control of him, and it felt like flying and falling at the same time.

The feeling went away, and he opened his eyes. He was at the edge of a forest; within sight of a larger town that he knew he'd never set eyes upon before. Something told him that life had returned to him, and another something that he needed to go in the general direction of a large house he could barely see on the far end of the town. This, he decided, was either a miracle or a really good dream.

Behind the large house, a wedding was taking place. The mother of the groom was elated, with only one child left to marry off now. The rest of the groom's large family took up about a third of the chairs, which was saying something since this was a large wedding.

The bride found herself happy, even though the groom was only her second choice. If things had gone like she had wanted them to, if the first person she'd loved hadn't DIED – she stopped herself, not wanting to think about him. It would be self-destructive at this point.

Odd how death had brought the happy couple together. They were the two people who missed that person the most. He had been the groom's twin brother and the bride's boyfriend. Somehow losing him had brought about so much that he would have hated more than anything.

Right before the bride said 'I do', a noise and a blur disrupted the ceremony. She turned her head and saw someone she'd thought she'd never see again, turning the chairs and decorations into a bit of an obstacle course quite by accident. It was so odd and so perfect at the same time.


	5. Chapter 5

Luna had not attended what was supposed to be the wedding of George Weasley and Angelina Johnston, but she had heard about what

Luna had not attended what was supposed to be the wedding of George Weasley and Angelina Johnston, but she had heard about what had happened there from at least a dozen people. To call it chaos would have been an understatement, she had decided. At least one good thing had happened – she had been dead right about the timing of the next Returning.

Though she'd considered the possibility more than everyone else she knew put together, there had been a few flaws in her theory. Most significantly were the identities of those who came back. She had nothing against either of them, but she had expected people who had been better-known, people who'd actually done something during the war.

Then there was the unusual behavior they exhibited. Tonks had always been on the edges of things, but it just wasn't like her to leave the few people she knew behind. Fred had always been a certain level of crazy, but ruining his twin's wedding was bad even for him. They just weren't being themselves at all.

Luna decided that, no matter what anyone else said to the contrary, resurrection was probably just a disaster waiting to happen.

_I wasn't quite sure what was wrong with me. It was almost like I was a different person, not the woman I had been before all of THIS had happened. I vaguely recalled that people who'd nearly died often found themselves with a new perspective on life, and that was probably what I was feeling now. I knew that the Afterlife wasn't just a bed of roses, and that had changed me._

_I spent a few days traveling around the country, observing places I knew from afar. I wanted to get closer, to observe all the changes that five years had brought, but I couldn't. It would be better, so much better for everyone, if as few people knew what had happened to me as possible. _

_I did venture close on one occasion, and regretted it instantly. A certain instinct in me told me that the school had become a memorial of sorts, and I wanted to see what had been done. The first thing that caught my eye was a rosebush on the edge of the cemetery, which had a plaque near it. Once I'd read it, I wanted to know more than anything what sort of idiot thinks a rosebush is a good memorial for a woman who did practically nothing worth mentioning. That woman was me, and it was chilling to see my grave, chilling to see the names of so many people I'd known engraved in stone for all eternity._

_Really, I saw my life as so insignificant then. I'd been just another casualty of my mother's insane older sister, just another girl who fell in love and disregarded the risks, just another person who'd died to save the future of her world. There's no glory in any of that, nothing deserving of a memorial and a place among the great heroes of the War, but they had given me all of that anyways._

_I drew back as I saw several people appear at the cemetery at the same time, not wanting to be seen. It was a family with several small children; I didn't recognize them so it was just as well. The oldest of the children, a girl around eight, had a few roses in hand and was placing them randomly. It was touching to see that people who hadn't even been affected were remembering the deceased, although it was a little odd as well._

_I just wanted to know why I was back._


	6. Chapter 6

"What do you think is going to happen next, Luna

"What do you think is going to happen next, Luna?" Ginny asked her friend. The weekly meeting of the three young women had been moved, so that it had only been three days since what was being referred to as The Incident Involving Fred. "You were dead right about when it happened, which means you probably have an idea what's next."

"It's not clear to me," Luna replied, "but it's not going to be good." This feeling of being needed, though she had tasted it before, was so strong and so sweet that she didn't know what to think. Having a passing idea what was going to happen next, at least in her mind, completely sucked.

"Define 'not good'" Hermione snapped, starting to panic.

"Either Fred's going to do the idiotic thing to end all idiotic things, or the next person will be pure evil." Luna had trouble explaining these feelings she had been having lately, and she hoped so strongly that the next event was the first one instead of the second.

"That settles it," Ginny said, tones of worry and panic tainting her gentle voice. "We've got to go into defensive mode, just in case the second thing happens. This could ruin everything, and I don't want anything to happen to anyone. Do you have any idea whom the person might be, Luna?"

"The next person is definitely female," Luna replied.

It was all out in the open now. Whenever any of them thought of a deceased woman who had been pure evil, Bellatrix Lestrange was the first name that came to them. Naturally, in Ginny's mind at least, that was the worst possible person who could Return.

"We're going to need every defense we can come up with," Hermione decided. "I'll write to a few people who could get this out in the open, McGonagall and Minister Shacklebolt. The more public this is, the less risky the chance will be. The three of us especially will have to protect ourselves and our families in every way we can."

While her friends discussed various forms of defense and panicked incessantly, Luna stood back and watched them. She had less to worry about then they did, not being in a relationship of any kind. The only thing she worried about was that she had an odd feeling that the next day, her 22nd birthday, was going to be a nightmare.

_At last I could be seen, because of what had happened at a wedding. People knew I was human again, so I didn't have to hide anymore. With that news, I was able to do something I had wanted to do, something I needed to do. I was going to visit my remaining family, my mother and my son._

_I rang the doorbell of the small house in which my mother still lived, the house I had grown up in. She answered it and was so elated to see me, so happy about everything that had happened. In her mind, at least, it was as though I had never left this world._

_She led me to the sitting room, where Teddy was happily playing with something. He looked up at me, but he didn't quite know whom I was. I figured there would be time for that later, so I accepted it as best as I could._

_The next morning, the _Prophet _came, and a lot of startling things were on the front page. One of the girls who had made everything clear for me, Luna, was predicting a few more Returnings, as she called them. Ordinarily this would have made me quite happy, but the problem was that she was not predicting the Return of a good person. Instead, the person in question was my aunt – yes, the absolutely insane one. Something was most definitely wrong with the world as I used to know it._


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: This chapter is rather long (for me anyways) because a lot of stuff needed to happen all at the same time

A/N: This chapter is rather long (for me anyways) because a lot of stuff needed to happen all at the same time. It's really chaotic but please bear with me; I have too many ideas for this.

For the first time in his life, George Fabian Weasley hated his twin brother. It was amazing that Fred was back, that he'd returned from the dead. What wasn't amazing is how Fred had managed to ruin George's wedding. If it had been someone else's wedding, George would have praised his twin for having impeccable timing, but as it was, George was very angry.

The list of things in George's life that had gone wrong since Fred Returned was a very long one. First off, Angelina refused to acknowledge his existence, which was bad even for her. Fred had severely damaged Angelina's parents' garden, and George was expected to pay for all the damages, including two very rare rosebushes. His family was all hovering over Fred, treating him like the prodigal son. And on top of everything else, his sister, his youngest sister-in-law, and that willowy girl they spent a lot of time with had gone public with the most ridiculous prediction possible.

"George? We have a situation out there!" In a way that only she could, Alicia Spinnet roused George from his melancholic misery in the back room of the shop.

"What's wrong?" he asked, jumping to his feet in panic. Alicia was notoriously calm, and everyone in the shop took notice when she reacted to something.

"Migration of the Pygmy Puffs," she replied, trying to stop herself from laughing. "They're headed in the general direction of the Owlery, and you had better stop them before they get trampled."

Pygmy Puffs, though they were one of the first things George had come up with, were always a popular pet with girls in the general area of ten years old. George had never experimented to see what they would do if left to their own devices, and he decided that he was going to have to get a better container for them – once he caught them, that is.

The first thing George found out while trying to catch the little furballs is that 'Accio Pygmy Puff' doesn't work. The second thing is that the Puffs are attracted to food, which wasn't all that surprising. After following the Puffs to the ice cream parlor, George managed to catch them with the help of a few observing nine-year-old girls, who were each offered a Puff after the rest of them had been caught.

George returned to his own shop, the newly locked container of Pygmy Puffs in hand. "You look like you just fought a battle and lost," Alicia commented.

"Pygmy Puffs like ice cream," George muttered as he left the shop again to buy a proper cage, one with multiple locks.

_To say that my mother was panicking would be quite the understatement. Normally calm and reserved, she was scared half to death at the mere CHANCE that her older sister might Return. I could just picture what she'd do in the unlikely event that it happened – at least I was calling it an unlikely event when I spoke to her, tried to get her to calm down. Inside, though, I was panicking just as much as she was. That girl – Luna, I think – had been dead right before, and the odds were that she'd be right again._

_Meanwhile, I made no progress with Teddy. He seemed to accept the fact that I was going to be around him for a decent period of time, but beyond that I might as well not have been there. Believe it or not, it hurt me to see him like that; so oblivious to what had happened._

_I didn't know much about dealing with children, having been an only child with no nearby neighbors who'd associate with my family, but I seemed to recall acclimating to people when I was small. Once I realized that they weren't going away anytime soon, it had always been easier for me to accept them, to talk to them and otherwise be nice to them. That tactic, though I knew that it was probably flawed and that Teddy wasn't quite who I'd been, was all I had to go on._

"You're crazy," Luna said as Ginny explained what had been put together to keep her safe. For lack of a better location, Luna would be staying with Ginny's parents at the Burrow until, in Hermione's words, 'everything blew over'.

"You can't stay in your flat alone," Hermione replied, ridiculously reasonable as usual. "We don't know what might happen, and generally a person with other people around is a lot safer than a person alone."

"Yeah, because that worked SO well five years ago," Luna muttered, having a rare sarcastic moment. She, of course, thought her friends were over-reacting like they frequently did. To her dismay, she'd been unable to talk them out of their half-cocked plans for her protection.

"That's exactly what I mean," Hermione said, although she was referring to a different event than Luna was. "Your dad was always alone, and … think of what happened to him. He didn't even MATTER to them, and things went so tragically."

"I'm not sure being in groups is brilliant either," Luna insisted. "A lot of the kids our age that died five years ago – they were on the edge, in groups of three or four."

"Luna, this is for your own good," Ginny said, taking over the job of trying to convince the girl. "We've set all this up to keep you safe from HER. I believe you're right, which means that you're going to be in a lot of danger in the near future. Listen to me – we've arranged this because we care about you, because we don't want anything to happen to you."

"All right," Luna sighed. "I suppose I ought to go pack my bags and then go to the Burrow, right?"

"We're sticking with you," Hermione replied, "until you're safe under Molly's wing."

She had no idea where she was, and only a passing idea of whom she had been. A fury of revenge swept through her, and she knew everything – except where she was, of course. Oh well, she decided, that could be dealt with later. For the moment, all she wanted was to return to the power and fear that had been hers five years beforehand, before she had croaked.

Those who had try to hurt her would pay ever so dearly once she found them, she decided happily. Those she had meant to hurt would find themselves at her mercy, and she was a cruel woman. It would be just like old times.

She set her mind upon two targets, a boy whose family she had shattered and a woman who had destroyed her. They would feel pain when she found them; that much was certain. They would cry for death, and she would not oblige. With a malicious laugh, she decided that she was going to have a lot of fun.

Ninety miles away, Luna felt a chill creep into her body, though she was comfortable under several blankets. Things were about to get a lot worse.

A/N: Thanks to my lovely reviewers, who have made me really like what I'm doing with this. Reviews and suggestions are always appreciated.


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: Chapter Eight already

_I had never seen anyone react quite the way my mother did when we found out that the girl had been right and that my insane aunt was loose on the world once again. Her overreaction when it had merely been a possibility seemed perfectly reasonable now, and that was a scary thought. Everything was so complicated, so complex, so hard to make sense of now._

_Another of the girls who had found me – Hermione, I think – turned up to visit me the day after the news broke. I have a dreadful memory for names, unless they're really odd, so I swear I called her at least five other things before I got her name right. I was just curious why she'd turned up and how she'd known where to find me._

"_Your family needs to go into hiding" were the first words she said to me. "It's not safe for any of you to stay here, and it won't be for a decent bit of time."_

"_I'm not hiding," I said bravely. "I can see why my mother and my son should hide – they'd be useless if something went wrong – but I'll do anything and everything I can to take her down again."_

_The girl rolled her eyes at me. "Don't you remember that she was the one who killed you?" she snapped._

"_I'll be on guard," I replied._

"_Don't you understand that it's not safe for you to be here without protection?" she asked me as though I was a child. "It isn't, and you need to go someplace where you can be protected."_

"_Where do you have in mind?" I realized I couldn't win against her, so I decided to shut up and follow her half-cocked instructions as much as I could._

"_Since, as you pointed out, you can fight for yourself, you're going to the Burrow. Your mum and Teddy will be with me and my family, although we don't yet know where we're headed. I recommend you say goodbye to them and pack up whatever things you've got that you care about; you won't be seeing them or this house for a decent bit of time._

The Burrow was full of activity and people that morning. Luna helped Molly with whatever was needed, which ranged from a bad attempt at making coffee to making sure the belongings of different families stayed separate. The house had turned into the defensive command center, and things got more and more chaotic by the minute as people kept turning up.

Once the number of people in the house crossed twenty, Luna faded to the background. Though it wasn't her fault that all these people's lives were in a state of pandemonium, she felt as though it was. She wrote names of new arrivals on a piece of parchment, which would be handed off to the team in charge of finding safe places – in reality, that meant Hermione.

Nearly everyone there had a family, or at least a spouse or significant other, but there were a few exceptions. The main one was Cho Chang, who had taken over Luna's job of reducing the level of bedlam as much as was possible. She would not go into hiding; instead she would stay at the Burrow and help manage things. It was all she could do to help.

"Do you have any idea how many people we'll end up having here?" Cho asked Luna. "Molly wants to know how much soup to make for lunch."

"No idea," Luna replied, "but I'd bet on around fifty."

Luna's guess turned out to be right; at precisely noon, forty-seven people were in the main room, the garden, and any place that wasn't declared off-limits. Of these, all but seven were going into hiding. Those who were staying in the house were Tonks, Luna, Cho, George, Alicia, Molly, and Arthur.

While people flitted around the rest of the house, George, Alicia, and Lee Jordan were in the attic, experimenting with a few useful objects they'd created. It was mainly an excuse to avoid the organized chaos downstairs and outside, but the items were practical as well.

"This is cool," said Alicia upon trying on a modified version of a Headless Hat, one that made the wearer entirely invisible. "There'll be quite a market for these once everything's normal again."

"What's normal?" George muttered under his breath.

"Lee," Alicia said, "You can replicate this while I test the new-and-improved Detonator. Yo, George, you okay?"

"Far from it," George muttered. "Let me monkey with the Detonator; you can go find some kid who'll taste-test the Flaming Fudge, so long as you take the Antidote with you."

Flaming Fudge was one of George's latest inventions. It looked and tasted like normal fudge, but it quite literally set the mouth of the person eating it on fire. Antidote, another recent project, cancelled the effects of almost any item sold in the shop, with a few small and insignificant exceptions.

Deciding not to torment one of the ten or so children in the vicinity of the Burrow, Alicia tested the Fudge herself. It was perfect; she reached for Antidote the moment after she put it in her mouth. "Why'd you make this?" she asked, curious about the ulterior purpose of the Fudge.

"For the heck of it," George replied, showing a glimmer of his usual self.

"But we're supposed to be monkeying with the USEFUL stuff," Alicia said, tones of frustration and exasperation tainting her voice. "Honestly, George, do you really think this could help us defeat HER? Some days I think I have good reason to question your sanity!"

"What's sanity?" George muttered, melancholic once more.

He knew neither where he stood nor how he had gotten there, but unlike several other people, he saw the reason for his Return. Since his death, eight years ago, he had thought constantly of her, the girl who he had cared about more than he had thought was possible. He wondered endlessly if she had moved on, if she had found life in his death, if she herself still lived. Things would be good now, and he would hopefully pick his life up where he had left it.

A certain feeling swept over him, and he found himself walking in the direction of a building that he had neither seen nor heard of, but something told him he needed to be there. He wondered what she would think of him, if she would recognize him, if she were still single or at least unmarried. The love he felt for her was strong, and it had only grown in his absence. He didn't much care what he had missed; all that played a factor in this new life was finding her again.

A/N: Unless something comes up, Returning is now around a fourth of the way to getting finished! The latest person to Return (and yeah, I know it's obvious who it is,) will be the last for a decent length of time – there's a lot of plot to plow through before someone else turns up. If anyone wants to know who four characters that absolutely must Return are, go to the Harry Potter Fanfiction Challenges forum and click the topic titled 'Back to life challenge/bunny', where this idea came from – yay for **Worldpeace**, who is responsible for this. Oh, and please click the pretty purple button – feedback is always loved and appreciated.


	9. Chapter 9

Three days passed, and the chaos level at the Burrow lessened with each one

Three days passed, and the chaos level at the Burrow lessened with each one. Safe places were found, additional defenses were set, and slowly couples and families retreated to their havens. Eventually, all those who remained were those who would stay there until further notice.

Several more days passed, and things became quiet, calm, and quite frankly a little boring. Generally, it was a very bad sign when even George couldn't make a situation more interesting. So the five younger people drifted off, floating into private places and silent spaces.

A little-known fact about the Burrow is that the doorbell, despite evidence to the contrary, occasionally works. This is frequent enough that no one ever removed it, but rare enough that no one knew it worked. So when it rang on the sixth day of the isolation and hiding, no one quite knew what to make of things.

Cho had expected, upon opening the front door and stepping outdoors, to see an extremely lost Muggle package-delivery man. Instead, she was face-to-face with the person whom she had spent the past eight years in mourning for. Without fully knowing what she was doing, she fell into his arms, sobbing tears of sweet happiness. "You're … you're …" She was speechless.

"I'm here," he replied, now knowing why it seemed he had been pulled towards this place. In her teardrops, in her embrace, he found the answer to the question that he had wondered about since he had seen daylight again that morning. She was still alone, so alone in the world, and she needed him more than she ever had during their tragically brief relationship.

He looked at her closely, more so than he ever had before. She hadn't changed much physically; maybe she was a little taller, but that was all. It was in her eyes that he detected something had happened, that perhaps her life had gone dreadfully wrong. "I want to know," he said, clearly concerned. "Tell me everything that's happened in the past eight years."

"The first three years – basically, they were hellish. Then … then it all ended, and everyone picked up their lives where they'd left them, and I was alone, always alone. No one … no one really cared about me, and it was like I was invisible or something like that. After … after you were gone, I became nothing in their eyes. And now everything's gone wrong again, right when we least expected it. A woman who's evil, pure evil, has returned from death like you have, and everything's the way it was during the war."

"What war?" He felt as though he had managed to miss something rather important.

"It was dreadful," she sobbed, "just dreadful. About a year after you left, everyone suddenly believed Harry, understood what had really happened at the graveyard. The next two years – you name it, it happened, and it was nightmarish. Nothing happened to me, but I'm still scarred inside from what I saw the night that everything ended, the night we won. Lots of people died, and I was there, seeing everything happen. I … I would have fought in memory of you, but I was told not to do so, that we didn't need another casualty."

"How … how did it feel when you saw that I was gone?"

"More painful than anything in the world. It was as though my whole world was shattered, and it might as well have been. I became someone else, a girl who was always alone inside, always crying for seemingly no reason."

"Was I … was I really that important to you?"

"Yes." She was no longer crying, merely holding onto him as though she might drift away if she let go. "You … you could never understand how I feel right now."

"I can try," he replied, gently pressing his lips to hers.

I was scared, more so than I ever had been during the war. The way everything had been feeling lately – it was like the war had never ended, and this time I was alone. It was so odd, being with half a dozen people and feeling desperately alone, but the sad part is that I felt it most in their presence.

_I had nothing against anyone there, so there seemed no real reason for me to hide from all of them, to retreat into any quiet space I could find. The younger ones – I was so bad with remembering that some of them were older than I had been when everything ended – were all so amazing. Maybe George and that girl that spent a lot of time with him – I could never remember names either – were a little left-of-center sometimes, but it wasn't hard to get used to them so long as one kept clear of the attic, where they tested anything George could come up with._

_Luna – I could finally remember her name, at least – was in an off mood that day, and I was starting to worry. A normal person in an off mood could be bad enough, but give that person odd FEELINGS about things that usually turn out to be right, and you have why I was a little unnerved. "What's going on?" I finally asked her, hoping I could actually help the situation instead of hurt it like I thought I would._

"_Something else's happened," she replied. We were, for lack of better things to do, searching several of the upstairs bedrooms for a deck of ordinary cards and hopefully instructions on how to play that interesting Muggle game – poker, I think they call it._

"_What?" I began to panic, like I was becoming so good at doing lately. Maybe I did take after my mother after all._

"_It's actually two things; one is dreadful and the other amazing." She seemed somehow at peace with both things, which could be taken as good or bad, I didn't know which._

"_Bad news first, then good," I said, hoping she'd listen to me. I had no idea what she thought of my curiosity; probably she was thrilled that someone cared about the good thing._

"_The bad news – SHE has set personal vendettas against two people, both of whom I care about. Molly is one of them, and the other is a boy I knew rather well at school." The tone of her voice implied that she had some level of interesting in the boy, if not love._

"_What's the good news, then?" I hoped that it really was good, that it wasn't just something that only she fully understood._

"_Open the window curtain and you'll see it," she replied._

_Instead of pulling back the curtain, I took it down, one of those things someone needed to do anyways. We looked out the window and saw Cho and a boy, who seemed passingly familiar, locked in a passionate embrace. It was so sweet, so touching to see that someone, at least, was affected in a good way by everything that was happening. "Who is he?" I asked, wanting to be sure._

"_Cedric," Luna said, and no one needed to say anything after that._

One of the worst things about the Return of Bellatrix Lestrange, it would later be said, was that unlike everyone else who Returned, she had her wand. This was something that gave her great pleasure, since no one knew about it and therefore they all thought she was mostly harmless. If there was one rule for describing her, however, it was never to use anything along the lines of 'harmless'.

She knew exactly where she was headed. The house in which her target lived was easy to find and, unless things had changed, not protected too well. The chance that someone might try to fight her didn't once cross her mind.

A/N: Please press the pretty purple button – reviews and suggestions are always appreciated. The next chapter is going to have a lot more action and possibly more fluffiness in it (although I'm bad at doing fluff; you have been warned).


	10. Chapter 10

One might possibly be wondering what happened to Fred after the wedding incident

One might possibly be wondering what happened to Fred after the wedding incident. The short version is that he did indeed pick up his life where he had left it, as several other people who had Returned put it, but that could probably mean anything by now. The long version, which is a lot more complex but basically the same story, is as follows.

The wedding incident, as it was always referred to later on, made the front page of the _Prophet_ the next day. The concept of returning from death has long been a favorite of the Department of Mysteries, and it seemed that half of the said department swarmed the house over the next few days, trying to make sense of things. It got worse, if anything, after Luna Lovegood went public with her unusual prediction. Since nobody could find her, they kept swarming the Johnstons' house, and Fred became very peeved at answering the same questions for the thirty-eighth time.

At least some things had stayed the same over the missing five years of his life (he had aged, as if he had been alive, but it was like he had never lived those years). Angelina had nearly died of shock when she watched him turn wedding decorations into an obstacle course, but she was back to normal and, more importantly, still loved him. He hadn't been surprised to see that most of his siblings were married off; Ron and Ginny had been in relationships since before he'd died and Percy had always been the determined type when it came to that sort of thing. In short, he decided that his Return had the added bonus of perfect timing.

--

A/N: This chapter's just a short explanation of what's happened to Fred since Chapter Four. Everyone who read my little teaser in the last chapter – that's been held off till the next one. Reviews are always welcome, especially with this chapter.


	11. Chapter 11

It was three in the morning, a time at which nearly anyone would normally be sleeping, and Luna was suddenly jolted vividly awa

It was three in the morning, a time at which nearly anyone would normally be sleeping, and Luna was suddenly jolted vividly awake. A chill of fear swept through her, and she knew exactly why she was now unable to sleep – SHE was nearby. Luna knew she couldn't help the situation on her own, so she decided to wake the others. Never a fan of traditional things, such as turning lights on brightly, she instead opted for setting off a large firework in the upstairs hallway.

Doors crashed open, and half-awake people slipped out of them. "What's going on?" asked Alicia, who was shockingly awake compared to the others.

"We have a lot of problems coming our way," Luna stammered, nearly speechless in shock. "She … she's coming here – I'd go on ten minutes from now, to be safe. As much as I hate to admit it, we're going to have to fight her."

"Great," George said a little too enthusiastically, "now we get to use the new Detonators. Don't look at me like that, Liss, I've tested them and they work amazingly well."

"Yeah, sure," Alicia muttered sarcastically under her breath. Though she had told George hundreds if not thousands of times that she HATED being called Liss, he never seemed to listen. He could be so dense sometimes!

"It's great that you have your little gizmos, but that won't stop her," Tonks said morosely, wondering how in the world she was related to that woman. "If we're going to try to take her down, we've got to have a solid plan, organized and all of that. Let's see – six of us that can fight, which means three lines of defense. Luna, Cho, you'll need to stay out of the way for a while, five minutes or so…"

"I'm not hiding," Cho said, cutting her off.

"Yes, you are," Cedric told her, placing a hand protectively on her shoulder.

"As I was saying… Alicia and Cedric will be the middle line, stationed in the front room downstairs. George and I will be outside, waiting, but we'll bring the fight in here if we can, at which point the middle line will join us and the back line – that means you, Luna – will start heading down. I haven't the least idea whether or not any of this will help, and it could very well get us all killed, but it's the best we've got right now. Any suggestions?"

"Cho and I can set off a few Detonators, send them down the stairs of something," Luna suggested. Unlike Cho, she was happy to have to stay away from the action as long as possible. "Okay, we have five minutes to prepare, then everyone needs to get in place."

--

Five minutes later, everyone was ready. Luna and Cho were in the bedroom at the top of the stairs; the door was held open a few inches so they could throw Detonators as needed. Though Luna was peaceful and calm, Cho was nearly hyperventilating. "Now I know how people felt during the war," she whispered sadly, clearly afraid.

"You'll never know," Luna whispered back, slightly sarcastic.

A loud noise signaled that everything was in full swing, and they crept out the door and down the stairs. Things weren't going as planned; flashes of light illuminated the nighttime sky outside. Cho ran out, with Luna following a few yards behind.

In what was later referred to as the cockiest act of his life, George was trying to take Bellatrix head-on, with disastrous results. On the bright side, in Luna's mind at least, he was at least able to run. No one could quite see what was going on, but the flashes of light gave at least a general indication of the circumstances.

"Take this," Alicia yelled, heading into the fray with a series of defensive spells. She was actually quite good, taking the focus off George and only getting a few cuts in the process.

"You will never defeat me!" Bellatrix screamed. At this point, right as Alicia began to gain the upper hand, several crucial things occurred. A bright light flashed, and she vanished while the light stunned everyone.

--

_I opened my eyes and saw that she was missing. Cho, the girl I now lived for, had been taken while our eyes were turned. I'd have blamed myself if there had been anything I could have done, but I had been helpless, just like she had been._

_In my mind, it was a tragedy, but most of the others did not treat it as such. They seemed to accept that there was nothing they could have done, and they didn't think we could do anything now. Oddly enough, the person who did understand was that peculiar girl, Luna; the one who it seemed was responsible for things._

"_We've got to save her as soon as we can," she said three days after everything happened. "I know what THAT WOMAN is like, and if we don't do something now it'll be too late!"_

_As usual, I looked rather confused. "Luna was a hostage for two or three months during the war," George said, clarifying things. "If anyone would know what to do right now … I hate to say it, but she's the one."_

"_My question is, why Cho?" Alicia asked, seeming almost as perplexed as I was. "Her family's been around for about forever, and she barely knows anything about what we're up to. What's weird is this – I saw HER getting near me, about to do something, but at the last second she changed her mind."_

"_Alicia's right," Luna chirped. "This is all so, so odd, but since when have Dark people been predictable? The way I see it, people like that, especially HER, will do anything so long as it gets them what they want."_

"_Then the question is not, why her, but instead, what does SHE want?" Alicia clarified. "Don't go on this, but I'd say it's an attempt to get to one of us, probably Luna but I'm not sure."_

_--_

_While everyone else sorted things out, I was alone once more. I could hear them, of course; I heard all the explaining that had to be done for Cedric to understand what was going on, and the sudden brilliance Alicia showed. None of it made the least bit of sense, but life clearly wasn't meant to make sense. If it was … my mind drifted away into possibilities._

_I wondered if anything was still right in the world, if good people still existed beyond the ones that had flowed through the house less than two weeks before. If such people were out there, and I sincerely hoped they were, I hoped that they would find us and help us. As much as I hated to admit it, we needed all the help that we could get._

_--_

A/N: 11 already – I'm almost surprised I've gotten this far.


	12. Chapter 12

After Cho was captured, I started hanging back a lot

After Cho was captured, I started hanging back a lot. Letting the younger ones – oh, who was I kidding; they weren't that young anymore – take control seemed better. They didn't have any idea what they were doing, of course, but it felt nice to just stand back and watch them.

_To be honest, some of them reminded me of people I'd known, people who were long gone. Alicia was a lot like I'd been back then, except that she had no idea what she was doing and she was trying to take charge of things. Oh, scratch that, she wasn't much like me after all. George hadn't changed much, other than the fact that he was a little deeper than he had been. The other two – I hadn't really known them, so I couldn't tell WHAT they made me think of._

_It was like the War was going on again, the way Alicia made it sound. I couldn't blame her – this was probably the oddest set of events to ever happen to our world – but she was making everything seem worse than it was. Luna wasn't exactly helping the situation, but at least she knew of what she spoke. Her haunting appearance and a long, thin mark on her arm were the only signs my aunt had once tormented her, but memories of such things never die, or so I've been told._

---

"Okay, it's been three days and we've done NOTHING!" Alicia snapped, extremely frustrated.

"That's because we don't know what to do," George said defensively. While Alicia had sorted out strategies, he and Luna had gone through every book of Wizarding maps they could get their hands on, trying to locate Cho.

"George is right," Luna added. "We haven't any idea where SHE might be, so there's nothing we CAN do." Luna was being unusually reasonable, but at least she wasn't with anyone who knew how odd that was for her.

"Still, we've got to do something soon," Alicia decided. "How long was it before things got bad for you, Luna?"

Luna was very peeved at the moment, having given details on her own capture more times than she could count. "A week or so," she said, clearly annoyed with Alicia. "I had trouble tracking time, though, so it could have been a lot shorter than that."

"Oh, lovely," Alicia muttered under her breath. "Since we STILL don't know what we're doing, let's just go back to our normal attempts and see if we get anywhere."

---

A/N: Short, I know, but life is crazy again. Feel free to give me ideas for the next chapter, since I have NO IDEA what I'm doing.


	13. Chapter 13

A week later, a feeling of having already lost had swept over the Burrow. Molly and Arthur had been relocated after what Alicia referred to as The Capture, and no one quite knew what they were doing. No one except Luna, that is.

"Got it!" Luna yelled, triumphantly gliding down the attic stairs. A large box was in her arms, obscuring most of her body, and from the look on her face, it weighed a ton. "I knew this was up there somewhere, I just didn't think I'd find it this fast."

"What is 'it'?" Alicia asked curiously as she helped Luna set the box on the sitting room floor. She trusted the girl, but who knew how useful the item would turn out to be. Knowing their luck, it would probably be the oddest thing possible, but of course it would work.

"It's not just one thing," George said, clarifying the situation. "It's a box of stuff someone put together after the war – only reason it's here is because the attic here's the safest place anyone could come up with."

"What sort of stuff?" Alicia glared at George.

"Newspapers, photographs, that sort of thing. Might be a few old journals in there, those would be useful, but I'm not really sure. At any rate, it's the best we've got."

The three of them opened the box and saw that George was right. It was loaded with everything imaginable, newspapers and photographs just being the tip of the iceberg. Most interesting was the fact that someone had apparently collected memories from the survivors of everyone who died and written them down inside a very large, thick book. Luna attacked this at once, while George looked through the newspapers and Alicia attempted to organize the photographs. At last, they were getting somewhere!

--

_I found it odd how much I was keeping to myself. It wasn't like me, yet it made sense given everything else. Finally, after ten days, I decided that they needed me, needed someone with another perspective._

_I slipped down the staircase and saw the girls and George in the sitting room, weeding through a large box. "What's going on?" I asked them. Certainly there was a REASON they were going through five-year-old newspapers, wasn't there?_

"_We're trying to figure out if there's a pattern to what your aunt's been doing," Alicia said, placing a handful of photographs in a small bag. "Everyone's predictable if you look at them properly."_

_Lovely, I muttered to myself, we have one of those people who read people on our side. I meant that in a good way, of course – such people were useful and, more importantly, this one knew what she was doing. "I don't think she's predictable," I said after pausing for a few moments. "Even though she has these vendettas against two people, neither of them are connected to Cho in a way in which she would be an ideal hostage. If she had been looking to take a hostage that would break the boy, for instance, Luna would have been much more likely."_

_For that remark, Luna sent me a look that signaled I was treading on thin ice. "She's right," Luna said. "We're dealing with one of the most unpredictable persons I've ever crossed paths with, so nothing's going to make sense. Sooner or later, we're just going to have to wing it."_

"_What did you mean by 'break'?" Alicia asked me._

"_It's not like her to do this," I said, "but it's possible. On occasion, someone might take a hostage that is particularly close to the person they wish to attack. A friend, a relative, a lover – it doesn't matter, so long as the intended target will wish to rescue the captive. Like I said earlier, though, she's never used this before so I wouldn't bet on her starting now."  
_

--

"No!" Cho screamed, writhing in agony. "I don't know anything – they didn't tell me what they were planning, and I'm not sure they WERE planning something."

"In that case," Bellatrix said, flipping her wand nonchalantly, "you will tell me what you know of my intended target. I believe the boy is called Neville, although I might be wrong."

"I think I've met him once or twice," Cho gasped. "I know nothing."

"Sure you do. Is there anyone who is," she paused for a moment, "_close_ to him?"

"I don't know," Cho screamed. "Maybe Luna, but I'm not sure."

"Perfect," Bellatrix murmured, putting her wand in her pocket. "This will play out splendidly."

--

In the safety of the Burrow, Luna began to panic.

--

A/N: In case you were wondering why I haven't posted to this in a while, I seem to have a challenge addiction and I lost my ideas for a few days. Both problems have been solved (for the moment at least) and I'm going to try to update more frequently. Please press the pretty button and review; feedback is always welcome. And a small warning in advance – it's unlikely I'll get the chance to update more than once in December, due to the worst holiday to-do list EVER.


	14. Chapter 14

The next day, Luna flitted about in a state of disturbance, almost knowing things were about to get interesting. "I just know something's happened," she said that afternoon after remaining silent for the better part of the day. "I'm not sure what, which is the scary part, but I do know that no one else has Returned."

"Okay," Alicia asked, "what are you thinking MIGHT have happened?"

"Don't quote me on this, but I have a feeling Cho's hurt," Luna replied.

"Define 'hurt'," Cedric said, rising from his perch at the front window, where he had stayed for the past ten days.

"Like I said," Luna clarified, "I'm not sure. She's alive, that much I know, but beyond that, I have no idea."

Just then, George came crashing into the room, waving a map in his left hand. "We're saved," he said, pointing to a little dot on the map. "I'm not sure why, but I have a feeling she's here, in this general area."

"Great," Alicia muttered sarcastically. "When you figure out HOW we're gonna locate her, let me know. Till then, we're staying here and working on alternate ideas."

"I think George is right," Luna said. "I've had dreams about … what's going on, and that's in the right place. This much I know – we'll find her in a large house, and there will be no Wizarding people within about fifty kilometers. That's the only place it could be."

--

_While the others worked out logistics, I was alone again. If anyone else were going to Return, I had to tell myself about fifteen times a minute, Luna would have mentioned it. I was trying not to get my hopes up, but there were people I missed, and I couldn't help but wish I'd misheard the girl. I hadn't, of course, which was far from comforting._

_I didn't intend to go with them for their half-crazy rescue attempt, knowing full well that it would probably end badly. I'd mentioned that to them a few times, but of course they didn't listen to me. From what I could tell, Alicia never listened to people, and George and Cedric weren't much better. Luna did pay attention to what I said, at least, but no one really listened to her either._

_If anything, things got even more chaotic when the _Prophet_ came that day. The headline was pretty meaningless, but I saw something quite disturbing on the second page. "Young Woman Reported Missing", the title read, and it went south from there. Apparently the girl worked with George and Alicia, and no one had the least idea what had happened. I darted downstairs and showed the others, knowing they would react like I had._

"_Blast it!" Alicia exclaimed, taking a glance at the article. "George, you'd better read this – it's about one of our people. That blonde girl – Verity, isn't it? Anyways, she's missing, and I have a good feeling who's behind this."_

"_In that case," George decided, clearly panicking "we'd better deal with the rescue attempt ASAP. Is tomorrow okay with you guys?" Everyone else nodded their heads in agreement; I didn't need to. "We're on, I guess."_

--

A/N: Really short but … set-up. HOPEFULLY I'll be able to do the next chapter soon and kick the action into gear. New estimate for length, by the way: 20 chapters. I have the final two or three planned, but I don't know how long it'll take to get there.


	15. Chapter 15

_The rest of that day was chaotic, to say the least. There were people crashing around here, there, and everywhere, looking for all sorts of things that, for all they knew, may not have even been in the house. As was becoming usual for me, I stood in the background, neither doing nor caring. This was, quite honestly, probably the worst rescue attempt ever devised, and I'd heard of some bad ones before. In the unlikely event that they survived this mess, which I wasn't sure could happen... that's when I'd get involved, and not a moment beforehand._

_The next morning, it seemed that all the panic of the previous day had been condensed and doubled. The crash-bashing began at a really early hour (I wasn't tracking time) and continued till what seemed like the middle of the morning, when the final logistics were decided in the front room. Though I'd made my position clear about fifteen times, I was still talked into watching as they butchered what little of a plan they had to begin with._

_"I don't think all of us charging in at once is a good idea," Luna said after she'd taken a glance at Alicia's confusing plan, drawn out on a piece of paper the size of a small person. "Maybe two to begin with and the other two a few minutes later - that would work, wouldn't it?"_

_"Hate to say it," George muttered, "but she's probably right. Crazy though Luna probably is, she's been right a lot more than the rest of us combined. I'll do backup with her, and you two charge in first."_

_"Whatever," Alicia sulked. "It's not like we really have anything to lose by doing this..."_

_"If we do lose something or someone," I said, standing up from the chair I'd been perched in for a good half-hour, "it'll be the most honorable sacrifice. As much as I'm against this half-cocked excuse for a plan, I'm going with you guys, and I'll take the front position with whomever's crazy enough to stick with me."_

_I had a feeling I'd regret that statement later, as I always did, but something in me knew that it was what had to be done. As during the war, we were all fighting for something - some for love, some for family, and then those of us who were like me, fighting because there was nothing else we could do._

_The plans were set, and we were off._

---

"No! Stop! I'll do anything!" Cho's resolve was cracking. One more second of this agony, and there would be nothing left of her. Just days ago she had returned to being whole, a person with feelings, hopes, dreams, love, and now she was breaking again.

"Really?" Bellatrix looked almost serpentine, cunning and shrewd in a way that terrified Cho. "Would you sacrifice the one you love most for your freedom?"

"No!" Cho screamed. "Never! He is my reason to live now, and you can't take that from me, not now and not ever!"

"But do you not see that is the only way I will let you go?"

"I don't care!" A sudden bravery flooded Cho. "He'll come for me, I know he will, and you'll die again when he does!"

"What if I can't die?"

"No one can be kept from death," Cho said, her last words before collapsing.

"Perfect," Bellatrix murmered. "This is exactly what I was hoping for."

---

A/N: Finally an update! Please review. Hopefully I'll finish this by the end of January...


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